*Students and colleagues of a California teacher are speaking out in his defense following his arrest for punching a 14-year-old student — after the teen called him the N-word.
The New York Post reports that as of Monday, a GoFundMe page created by a woman working in the same Los Angeles district as 64-year-old Maywood Academy High School teacher Marston Riley reached just over half the $50,000 goal.
Cellphone video of the incident shows Riley facing off with the student at the front of the class before punching him. The student hits back but the teacher repeatedly pounds him until he ends up on the floor.
Watch unedited video of the incident below.
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A Black band teacher-Marston Riley was arrested after he defended himself from a hispanic student who hit him with a basketball,called him multiple epithets, & continued to threaten him. If this were a Black student, the kid would have been arrested & the teacher would be a hero pic.twitter.com/0KkQi3Zk2t
— Tariq Nasheed (@tariqnasheed) November 4, 2018
Riley was jailed overnight on Friday on suspicion of child abuse. He was released Saturday after posting $50,000 bail, CBS Los Angeles reported. He’s scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 30, authorities said.
The teen was treated for minor injuries at a local hospital and released, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office.
Students told KTLA the fight began when Riley asked the student to leave the classroom because he wasn’t properly dressed. The boy refused and hurled racial slurs at the teacher, who is black.
“It was just back and forth, back and forth, and then the teacher just decided to throw a punch and that’s when everything happened,” one student told CBS.
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#MarstonRiley is there a GoFund me page going for this gentleman? I would definitely donate to his defense fund. If your going to square up like a man, learn how to take an Ass kicking like man. Pretty sure dad forgot to teach him that.
— JAG (@cpdusmc65) November 3, 2018
Some students, parents and teachers have defended Riley on social media — believing the racist student got what he deserved.
“We all may have mixed feelings about what happened. But please do know that this is not the first time that Mr. Riley is attacked; physically or verbally. He is a great person and a great teacher,” reads a description on the fundraising page.
“He was a really nice teacher, I always respected him. He always had a really good relationship with every student,” a student told KTLA.
Still, other parents were left disturbed by the incident.
“Just the fact that he’s hitting a child — it’s not right,” one mom told NBC.
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